Arabic Literature and Translation

Sunday Submissions: Ghassan Kanafani Writing Scholarship

A new Ghassan Kanafani Writing Scholarship is open to Palestinian-American writers:

The scholarship — which seems a bit more like a prize — promises that the top three submissions (any genre, fewer than 3,000 words) will win $500, $250, and $250, respectively. The “top 20” pieces, meanwhile, will be published in online anthology.

Submissions must come from Palestinian-Americans aged 18-25.

The submissions deadline is June 1, 2016, and the writing — which must in some way address “your experience around identity, the shataat, or anything regarding your relationship to Palestine and being Palestinian” — should be uploaded here. According to organizers:

This scholarship aims to provide a space to re-engage the Palestinian narrative and explore the complexity of our identity in the shataat,* and how our existence relates and connects to other marginalized communities in this country and beyond. It is these words that have the power to shift perspective and connect us to one another. Without our stories, we have no voice, thus rendering us invisible to society, or worse yet, subject to the harmful stereotypes that are ever present in the general discourse around Palestinians, Arabs, and larger Muslim world. Having a voice is synonymous with the capacity to influence and challenge structures of power. Our narrative should be considered one of our greatest strengths, and for this, we must use our voice to assert our commitment to our memories, imaginations, and just cause.